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How much matrix algebra do statistics students REALLY need?

Following a discussion using matrix algebra to show computation in a Multivariate Analysis of Variance, a doctoral student asked me, “Professor, when will I ever use this? Why do I need to know this?” He had a valid point. I’m always asking myself why I’m teaching something. Is it because it interests me personally, because…

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Wonder why girls don’t like math? Look at yourself!

Having taught math myself for the past 30 years, and with a brother who is a middle school math teacher, I am obviously not tarring all math teachers with the same brush, but I am really starting to get pissed off here. I have beautiful daughters, and it is not just me who says so….

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Don’t Believe Other People are Smarter Than You + Github is awesome

If you want to be a programmer, entrepreneur or a statistician, the best advice that I can give is, “Don’t believe other people are smarter than you.” Sometimes that is hard advice to take. I read an interesting blog post by Ali Berlinksi, “I miss being stereotyped”, about being Asian-American and moving to an area…

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Math sites in the “Dude! You have to check this out!” category

Let’s face it, 90% of everything on the Internet is crap. This is especially true when it comes to educational resources. So I cannot believe I did not come across these until now. Maybe they were just lost in the swamp of effluvia.  I came across so many good resources lately that I am planning…

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Becoming an Expert Statistician (or Mathematician or Programmer)

It’s not often that you read a paragraph and it sticks in your mind for months. That this particular paragraph came not from some great literary work but rather from the proceedings of the annual meeting of the Association of Small Computer Users in Education is even more expected, but there it is. Douglas Kranch…

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Advice for Daughters on Succeeding in the Tech World

The third of my four daughters was being questioned about her training before the last Olympics, and answered; My mother was the first American to win the world championships, so I called her for advice, and believe me, Mom is always brimming with advice, whether you want it or not …     In fact,…